A new “in-depth” news platform, designed by Method

Method has created a news-reporting platform for Coda, a group which has been set up by leading international journalists to provide in-depth news coverage of crisis and conflict zones.

The new platform will be navigated and categorised by “currents” rather then by format or type of story, allowing readers to explore the connected themes of an issue at length.

Coda has been set up by five journalists who have reported from war zones for the likes of the BBC, The Financial Times, and The New York Times.

Method client services lead Melissa Clark says Coda’s founders “were frustrated at how crises are represented in mainstream media”.

Clark adds: “They felt the nuances of how a conflict unfolds could be told and understood better. Large news organisations report the headlines and then leave, but the true story unfolds at that point.”

Clark says that Coda came to Method with “a strong vision” and asked “How can design validate it and bring it to life?”

A six-week development was begun with Method looking to find a way to convey the values and the character of the organisation and understand who the audience would be.

Given the complexity of many conflicts and crises, each conflict will be divided into “currents”, which are themes and also a way of categorising or tagging stories.

“We can then show how many of these stories are interconnected,” says Clark, who adds: “By navigating content by currents you see stories from different angles – maybe via a text story, photo story or podcast, allowing formats to stand in their own right and work together.”

This also gives the reader more choice of how they consume a story, she says.

A comparison with other news organisations showed that green is rarely used. This became the main highlight colour standing out from an otherwise black and white palette and as Clark says “also stands for growth and living and breathing”.

As a whole the visual identity is designed to represent the core Coda ideals and reflect its brand and service strategy.

A version of the design was first unveiled at the Global Editor’s Network Summit in Barcelona last year and although it is yet to be realised as a finished product, it has been conceptualised and validated.  

Coda is looking for funding to take the business forward and wants it to be privately owned so editorial independence can be guaranteed.

Clark says: “While there is absolutely a place for the big news organisations, many of them end up talking to the same people in the same bars and to the same taxi drivers. Coda wants to get away from that and the design will allow them to show the depth and the nuances of people’s stories.”

 

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